Reflections Part 1

I have returned from a wonderful month in the Canadian Rockies. While the trip is over, I still have many more images to share with you, complete with educational and creative information.

This is the first in a series on reflections in water. There are few things more calming and pristine than a lovely scene reflected in a crystal clear lake.

When working with reflections, you have several creative choices which will be covered in this series. You can show the entire reflection, as you see here, or you can show portions of reflections. Because the entire scene and its reflections were so perfect, and the clouds were nice, I chose to show the entire scene.

There were several options for vantage points, and I chose this one carefully. I wanted the curving shoreline to lead the eye into the scene, and I wanted more of the mountains to show than the trees.

Often in photos of reflections, the scene takes up about half the space and the reflection occupies the other half. That is not a rule, but sometimes it seems to work well, as in this image. 

Some scenes and landscapes seem to lend themselves to black-and-white, and that is certainly the case in the Canadian Rockies. The dark evergreens, the light snow, and the mirror reflection combine to create a simple but effective palette of whites, blacks, and grays. As I have mentioned in past blogs, Lightroom can be a good tool to use for creating excellent black-and-white images. By using the BW portion of the HSL box, and then using the color sliders to control the lightness or darkness of selected portions of the image, you can create an image with strong shades of gray and can control the range of blacks and whites.

There will be an in-depth, no-holds-barred Lightroom class offered March 16 – 20,  2015 in Richmond, Virginia. This class will be geared both for those new to Lightroom as well as seasoned veterans. Details are not yet posted on the website, but if you received the September newsletter you can read about it there. Or call 757-773-0194 or email awakethelight@charter.net for details.  

TECHNICAL DATA

Shutter Speed 1/200 sec.  Aperture f/14.  ISO 800.  Lens: Canon 17-40mm f/4 set at 27mm.  Camera: Canon 6D.  Handheld.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “The more I see, the less I know for sure.”  --John Lennon